‘Who Is Mark Twain?' Reveals 24 Previously Unpublished Works

In his essay 'The Privilege of the Grave,' Twain wrote about a work he’d finished but decided not to print because of the controversy it might stir. "I will leave it behind, and utter it from the grave. There is free speech there, and no harm to the family," he wrote.

Those words were prophetic.

‘Who Is Mark Twain?’ a book containing 24 previously unpublished stories and essays by Mark Twain, aka Samuel Langhorne Clemens, officially goes on sale on April 21, 2009, 99 years after his death.

This would hardly be worth notice were it another author, but Mark Twain put the ordinary American at the center of his literature and elevated common speech to an art. He is to American literature what Shakespeare is to English literature.

The works are part of a collection owned by the University of California, Berkeley.